Chapter 12
1963 - 1965
RAF Halton and The British Puppet & Model Theatre Guild
At RAF Halton the boy apprentices were trained for three years instead of the meagre one year that I had; there being much more general education and sports. Many of the trainees moved on to officer or flying training. The Officer's Mess was the Rothschild mansion in the woods and the whole camp was in the beautiful Chilton Hills.
The domestic site; billets, dining halls, hospital, married quarters, etc. were on the 'uphill' side of the Wendover - Tring road and the training area on the other, downhill side. It would be dangerous to have hoards of individuals wandering across four time a day, so they marched with bagpipe and drum band and also, when dark, with lamps back and front.
There was always the desire to be top dog between the two training squadrons and there would be the occasional 'Pipe Through' when one squadron would march, with pipes and drums, through the other squadron's territory. We would try to block the paths between the billets with cars to prevent damage and let the marchers follow a safer route. It was easier than trying to stop such 'shows of strength'.
End of term stunts and especially
at the end of full training, the stunts were more demanding. One night a raid
was done on the other squadron where all the boots were silently 'liberated' and
found next morning in precise parade ground positions on the square.
Another time a farm was constructed on the opposing square complete with
tractor, donkey, straw bales and cabbages in imported soil. The final
'passing out stunts were of a whole level beyond.
One entry took a Baby Austin to pieces then carried the bits (minus engine) to London, joined the Inner Circle underground at various points until they completely filled one carriage, rebuilt the car and pushed it out at, I think, Westminster. Another group bought and stored Permanganate of Potash (I doubt if chemists still sell it) and with pounds of the stuff in small bags quietly emptied it into the fountains at Trafalgar Square turning the water blood red. Unfortunately, the communists were having a rally there that day and they got the credit!.
The knickers up the flag-pole
that I found when, as Orderly Sergeant about to perform the raising of the flag
first thing in the morning was very small beer. Although officially
frowned upon, as long as no permanent damage was done, these escapades were
rarely punished. Teaching these lads (and some lasses) was a pleasure,
they really were the 'cream'. My subject for most of my time there was
electronic control systems, still using mainly valves and the quality measured
in sheer weight of the equipment. 
Although I had joined the Puppet Guild the only contact I had was with the newsletters. It did, however, introduce me to some of the regular 'names of the Guild; the Shutts, Mcdonald, Ken Barnard, the Presses, Carr and Kemp. Perhaps there might be another exhibition or some sort of big meeting in London that I could visit or perhaps the monthly meetings - were they on Tuesdays? I decided to go on my own to start with then if the trip was reasonable I would take Kath and the children. So, down through Amersham, along the Western Avenue, past White City and the BBC studios, Shepherds Bush, Hammersmith, turn left at the river and along the river to Lupus Street, Pimlico. That didn't seem too bad and everyone else was going the other way at that time in the evening. The Shutts lived at Lupus Street and Muriel organised the monthly meetings at a 'village' hall there. I parked outside (I'm not kidding), crept in and sat at the back.
There was a miniature,
full proscenium stage; a bit small for marionettes but hardly a model or toy
theatre. A Mr. Clifford Heap was introduced and what a treat. I
forget what the story was but there were armies marching, fires, explosions and
a bewildering number of scene changes. It was a wonderful show and a great
introduction to these monthly meetings. After the show I was welcomed and
introduced around. It was soon apparent from the numbers there that this
was a special evening and most meetings would not have such a celebrity
performance.
I was able to go to most evening meetings but sometimes Kath and the children would come as well. Chris and Manda thoroughly enjoyed the shows but being quite young were usually fast asleep by the time we arrived home and would be carried quite oblivious of the move from car to bed. Some meetings would have no particular guest performer and we would 'bring and show', hold impromptu talks of experiences, instruction or general discussions but always useful, especially to me having met so few puppeteers in the past. We even performed one evening and were received kindly.
We were fortunate to see and hear some top performers. John Blundell, Mary Turner and Judith Shutt were working on the 'Supermarionation' TV shows at the time and gave interesting talks. I wonder what these worthies thought of us when we were asked to perform one evening?
We saw Richard Bradbury, the Australian shadow puppeteer and actor Derek Francis who had his own puppet theatre in his garden at Barnes. In February '65 I was invited there with a group to see a wonderful performance of "Beauty and the Beast" by Derek and his wife Penny. That visit was notable as being the last public appearance of one of our founders, Harry Whanslaw; a great privilege and a pleasure to meet the man.
It was during this period that there was an exhibition of puppetry at the Bethnal Green Art Gallery and I was honoured to be asked to give a series of short demo. shows during the day. It was the first exhibition I had seen and there were a number of contributors with whom I could compare my own efforts. It was quite pleasing to see that although there were some beautiful figures well above my standard I was about half way up the quality range; my work was beginning to be better than some of the professional work on show.
There were some
interesting AGM's using places such as the Little Angel Theatre. If there
was a negative side to the Guild at that time it was that there were some
personality clashes between certain strong willed members. I am normally a
fairly placid person but even I was sometimes drawn into the occasional
argument. 
I remember getting into a heated argument with Bill Meacock
about dimmers. They were invariably used as Rheostats, ie in series with
the load. This means that they will not dim out a lamp completely, a
problem that is accentuated the lower the wattage of lamp used. I used mine
as potentiometers, ie in parallel with the load. Used this way they will
dim out completely any wattage of lamp. They are safer in use, the lamp
voltage being reduced closer to neutral as it dims. The only
downside being that they are slightly more expensive in capital and running
costs; the least worry to a theatre. I even wrote to Strand Electric at
the time but the answer basically was "It is always done that way!". It is
all academic now, anyway, as modern stage lighting is now thyrister controlled
with a computer from a small panel at the back instead of a near red-hot wall of
dimmers in the wings! Can anyone tell me the answer to this now academic
argument?
Books are all very well but talking and working with others is so much better. "Mac" (McDonald) was a carver and I picked up some good tips from him as well as a lovely bulbous Victorian piano leg in real Honduras mahogany which became a cat head with moving mouth. Then there was the art of street theatre by such extroverts as Percy Press 2, I was involved with a small committee investigating the improvement in membership numbers, both adult and juniors. - we do this about every decade with little effect but seem to survive more or less unchanged. As the only non-Home Counties member on the committee, my own contribution, for what it was worth was to consider our possible member in the Outer Hebrides - after all we are the British Guild, not just London. Just let us make sure that all members living in the real world get a fair crack of the whip with good communications. At the present time this has been achieved, more or less, with meetings and festivals in most areas of the country that has a fair sprinkling of members.
However, at that time, if one lived in or around London there was plenty going on. One big event of the year was the Guild's annual Dinner Dance at a hotel in London where we were entertained by Cyril Fletcher with his 'Odd Odes', at another with a show by Ray and Joan Da Silva and later by Kath and I! Another major event in May '64 was the week-end school at, I believe, Baldock. I went to that one on my own, Kath, poor thing, having to baby-sit.
I was getting fed up
with the full proscenium theatre so decided on two solutions. One
was to use the open stage method with the marionettes which is how I continued;
there seemed to be no real
reason for closing curtains just to change scenery. The other was to try
glove puppets. As my marionettes had always been carved, the first few gloves had carved heads and these were either too small or
too heavy; I admire the Punch and Judy professor who can do a good half-hour
with large heavy figures on both hands. Not being blessed with weight
lifter's arms I looked for a different method of construction. I tried the
solid papier mache but never really got on with its lumpiness and not being able to
get a decent finish. I liked the idea of the paper layer method but that
meant making a Plasticine former and was not too keen on that method
either having always been a carver rather than a modeller. The RAF had been using
expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) for some time and there were often quite large blocks from the
instrument packaging in the rubbish bins. This could be carved with saw,
sharp knife, fine rasps (not files) and finished with sandpaper. Th
e
surface was soft and vulnerable so this then became the base for paper layer
like the Plasticine with the advantage that it did not have to be
removed as it was so light and yet gave strength to the paper layer.
I used this method for a few puppets but found a couple of design faults. First, paper layer cracks on the polystyrene and is vulnerable to breakage on the nose and ears. Better and quicker is mutton cloth instead of paper. This is bought in rolls as cleaning cloth and is made on a 'stocking machine' like French knitting, not woven which gives it excellent stretching properties.
The cloth is glued on with white PVA glue (do not use any 'acidy' smelling glue, it will dissolve the polystyrene). Starting with the face, on a ball shaped head the fabric will glue neatly about two thirds of the way around the head before it starts to ruckle but this part will be covered with a wig anyway. Instead of carving a nose on the polystyrene I cut a 'root' hole. When this is covered with the cloth, glued and dried, cut a cross in the 'drum-skin' of fabric over the hole and glue in a wooden nose. A 'Pinocchio' nose may be left at that but if a smoother shape is required then a little wood filler (glue and wood dust) between nose and fabric will suffice. Wooden ears will glue on at the sides; these being essential on marionettes to take the head strings. A larger hole is made to take the neck, either solid for marionettes or, say, a cardboard tube for gloves. The fabric gives a good 'bite' to paint (I use acrylics) as well as adding an attractive texture. The finished head has a leather-like feel, gives slightly when pressed and is quite firm.
Our first glove puppet, 'Samantha'
One advantage of using
gloves is that one can use rod puppets with them, the two types being quite
compatible. Our fairy story, "The Whisker" which was in our very first
show, was converted to hand
puppets. Bun and Clancy the Elf were glove puppets and the Princess and
the Magician were made as rod puppets. These latter two were the first to
be made in the expanded polystyrene and paper layer and having entered them in
one of the Guild exhibitions at Pimlico they won a commendation. For many
years now there has been no such thing as a commendation; we are lucky to get
entries in many of the various classes. Then it was a
great honour to win
a cup when most classes attracted many entries and so becoming top of your class
really meant something; alas, the cups are now collecting dust as so few people
enter for prizes. We did not consider continuing with glove puppets at
that time and as our daughter, Amanda was at infant school then, the glove booth was donated to the school when we left.
After the puppetry doldrums of RAF Feltwell it was good to be able to really get back in the saddle and we not only did far more shows but were becoming acquainted with many amateur and professional puppeteers. Most of our shows were of the children's party type but we were now doing Old Folks homes and one at the famous Stoke Mandeville Hospital. One show for the Guild was at a Toc H event along with Glyn Edwards. This was our first meeting. Much later we would be working together in a five company partnership.
I
still had only a three proper carving tools when
a friend offered me three
old ones belonging to his grandfather who was a water and wind-mill repairer.
They were a 1/4 inch '3', a 1/4 inch '5' and a 3/8 inch '9'; so I now had a decent
working set of six. Actually I was given four but ruined one by trying to
convert it into a 'spoon' in the open fire thinking sun camp where they cast me two clamp
parts in best RAF Dural for the cost of a couple of pints. I removed the
clamp from the bench to photograph it for this chapter so it has been in constant use for the
past 34 years. ch exotic shapes were
essential. I now have about fifty
tools including various specialised curved and spoon shapes which are
occasionally useful. One thing I was allowed to buy (Kath could be a bit careful with
money!) was a Zyliss Hobby vice which had various attachments and cost all of
£7.50 (a similar version is now over £100). It clamped to any bench or
table with two duralumin clamps and one day son Christopher decided to 'mend' a
bit of his bike by clamping it in the vice and adjusting it with a large hammer
and broke one of the clamps. The line on the up
per part of the clamp
picture indicates the original thickness of the metal. First I punched out the
hinge pin then added a piece of shaped plywood and smoothed the join with Plasticine, took it to the machine shop on
camp where they cast two new parts, much stronger than the original. It is
still in regular use; see picture left.
Our married quarter was
on the hill side of the married patch and we could climb over the fence at the
end of the garden, cross a small sloping field and be in the woods of the
Chilton Hills. All the usual wildlife was there, plenty of birds, rabbits
and deer. One day a friend who knew I was interested in wildlife brought
in a muntjac deer that had been attacked by a dog. Although it did not
seem to be injured it was probably suffering from shock and died after a couple
of hours and although I tried mouth to mouth, it refused to return to life.
The next village along the road was Tring and the Natural History Museum has a
small outpost museum there so we took the muntjac along and although they
already had a stuffed one they said they would keep the pelt for their general
collection. Whipsnade Zoo was also just a short distance away on Dunstable
Downs and we visited that as well as the hill where model planes would be flown,
especially gliders. These were radio controlled and with them flying
against the up draught, the 'pilots' could hold them stationary just above our
heads. And, of course there was London and we were able to make a few
visits there. It was easy, then, to park; in Westminster there was even a
bombsite car park which was cheap and usually had sp
aces
or one could leave the car in Hyde park.
When the trainees had their 'Passing out parade', a V.I.P. was usually in attendance and at one held in the Autumn, Princess Alexander presided. The officers, training staff and our wives were expected to attend. The officer's wives, mostly, wore posh frocks, light coats and dainty shoes on the side of the square which at that time of the year, half way up the Chilterns was decidedly chilly. We heard more than one disgruntled wife say, "She's wearing boots!". Princess Alex. had on a very sensible heavy coat, boots and a Russian style fur hat, showing that some members of the Royal family had more sense than the wives.
I had suffered from
tonsillitis nearly every year and in 1964 had it twice so the doctor suggested I
had my tonsils 
out. This was done in the camp hospital and was no problem
except that I got an infection of the nasal cavities. I do not know if the
treatment for that is still used but I do not want it again, thank you.
The treatment was two local anaesthetic soaked, cotton wool wrapped, wire
spikes shoved up each nostril and then the worst bit; a large hollow spike was
crunched through the dividing bone and hot water poured through the device to
clear the passages! That was bad enough but I had to go back the next day
and go through the procedure again and with four spikes sticking out of my nose,
I had to wait in reception for the nose to deaden. I felt like a Borneo
head-hunter and unable to flirt with the very pretty black nurse/receptionist.
When one aircraft can do as much damage as a few dozen of the old ones, fewer personnel and camps are required. RAF Melksham is already a council house estate, RAF Yatesbury where I did my basic training has reverted to farmland. Feltwell and the other missile sites are now part of the food production programme. There was a reshuffling of Trade Training and the Instrument School at Halton was split and went to Newton and Cosford. I had only three years left of my 22 years RAF service and so was given the usual choice of posting.
As I had spent a fair amount of the time teaching instrument technology I decided that I might as well continue teaching when I left the Service so chose another training camp. Melksham would have been ideal but, unfortunately, had closed. Newton, near Nottingham was a pleasant area and was first choice; Gaydon was a flying training school and might require teachers on the instrument side. Cosford, near Wolverhampton was last choice. My main memory of Cosford was when I went there from Mildenhall in 1948 to represent Three Group, Bomber Command in the RAF swimming trials (me, for diving). It was in late October and in the couple of days whilst there I went by bus to the Wolverhampton Civic Hall to see "Blue Moon". Cosford was cold, wet and grey; Wolverhampton was even worse. I apologised profusely to the family when my posting arrived, Cosford!
:
Learnt: There are materials other than wood! And the glove/rod combination can produce decent, even adult puppetry!